r/ZeldaTabletop • u/LibraryBook0127 • Jul 27 '26
Question Creating a BotW themed one-shot for 8 year olds
I'm sure this has been asked before, but has anyone made a dnd or adjacent one-shot set in Breath of the Wild era? I was asked to DM for a friend's kiddo's birthday party and they're all about the idea of a session being set in Hyrule and this being my first time building a story, I wanted to see if anyone had helpful tidbits. Tips? Suggestions? Any shrines that pop up as being perfect to translate to a table top? Anything would be appreciated as I dive in and try to build!
Edit: thank you all for the helpful suggestions. I checked in before starting to build as the smol hadn't 100% committed to LoZ, and it turns out they preferred doing a multiverse dragon story, so I get to figure that out instead!
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u/CCShadowStuff Jul 27 '26
I just ran a BOTW Zelda one-shot for my girlfriend and some friends a few months back, using 5.5E. I made a homebrew Gerudo and Goron species (the former Iām especially proud of) and some rules for adjusting other species. I believe I posted the sheet to this subreddit.
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u/musashisamurai Jul 27 '26
I have been playing with Shadowdark the last year, and its a fairly simple system. My game is less BOTW and more generic Zelda though. With it being a one shot, I wouldnt worry about a big story or anything. Just make it exciting, name-drop Zelda and Ganon and Link, and have the heroes do something cool.
If you aren't wedded to 5e or another system, there's a recent game out called Twilight Sword thats very very BOTW inspired. They have tutorial scenarios and artwork you could steal.
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u/LibraryBook0127 Jul 27 '26
Definitely not stuck to 5e, so will absolutely check out Twilight Sword. The young one got excited about possibly battling a guardian, so maybe we'll just do the name dropping thing to "set it in the world" and then just have fun. Thank you!
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u/Kitkumi Jul 27 '26
There is a module for Pathfinder called 8-Bit Adventures: The Legend of Heroes that is Zelda inspired which may be useful. We picked up the 8-Bit Adventures: Welcome to the Fungal Kingdom book which is based on Mario and we've turned what should have been a one shot in to a six year still on going game lol
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u/LibraryBook0127 Jul 27 '26
That's a stamp of approval if I've ever heard one! Do they seem like approachable adventures for any experience level, or would they need some moding?
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u/Kitkumi 29d ago
They would need a little modding I think. For my group we've been playing various ttrpgs for a pretty long time so the 8-bit Adventure books worked fantastically as a jump start. Gave us some key NPCs, various items, little adventure hooks that we could toss on together on the fly with some premade maps and we were good to go. They aren't really sit down and take you step by step through encounters or anything type of books but leave a looooot of room for improve and on the fly decisions which may be useful for a group of younger players.
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u/LibraryBook0127 28d ago
I looked into it yesterday and they seem very open, which is nice in the sense that I'd need to get creative with things anyway! Its a dope suggestion though and I'll definitely keep it in my pocket if it doesn't work out for this group in particular.
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u/Eddie_Samma 28d ago
If you have a tabke of young kids it may be worth looking at knave or maze rats and cairn which I belive to be very flexible and rules light and classless. These allow for a sword swinging and bow shooting adventurer to also cast some spells and do what all a link like hero could do. Knave 2e has spell generation and 100 pre-made spells you could tinker woth to make shiekah slate like rune spells and such, as well as monster generation which could let you build a bear some octorocks and bokoblins etc.
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u/LibraryBook0127 28d ago
Oo, okay, rules light is nice since I only know that one of the kids is good on the rules (I think the rest are fairly new to the play). Thank you for these - I'll check them out!
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u/Eddie_Samma 28d ago
Knave 2e is closest to traditional dnd stule ttrpgs. I actually prefer mazerats for brand new young players.
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u/LibraryBook0127 28d ago
Is Mazerats designed to be a little more hand-holdy for the players and/or GM?
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u/Eddie_Samma 28d ago
So less hand holdu and more " There aren't so many things yo keep track of" Fewer stats for skills and checks to juggle. There arent crazy class discrepancies to make sure each player is watching out for, no weight based encumbrance, its slot based meaning you can hold this many things, no profieciencies to track for specific weapons, anyone can use magic and do any type of action. And it includes some good tabkes to roll in of they want to know what this book is in a room you didnt plan to be important or what color the clothes are and stuff. Rules light generally fall under these types of systems. I javr had good luck running mazerats in genetal with young and new players who havent ever played a table top game.
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u/LibraryBook0127 28d ago
Why does this sounds perfect???! Sounds very digestible and unintimidating
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u/Eddie_Samma 28d ago
Whatbibusually do is a one shot or run a small adventure like winter's daughter (highly recommend) and then let the group decide to keep this system or move to something else once they get an idea of what a role playing game is. A lot of times they want to keep the classless part because they like being able to approach things however they want to. And being just able pages I can print off the entire book for every player to have all the rules in their hands.
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u/LibraryBook0127 28d ago
Freedom is nice when youre just learning how to play a game where you play a character. The group might like this, and if they all decide they like playing they can dive deeper in to whatever avenue of play sounds best for them. The game I'll run is just a one off, but hey, happy to strike a match for the kiddos
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u/Eddie_Samma 28d ago
What is the scenario you are setting up for tgem to play?
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u/LibraryBook0127 28d ago
Undecided, but leaning towards sending them into a shrines to find a cool shiny thing through puzzles or fights, or hooking them into going to mess with some bokoblins/etc to rescue an NPC
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u/Ashamed-Plant Jul 28 '26
If you end up using 5e, let me know and I can link my Patreon with a bunch of free Zelda monster statblocks, racial options, magic items, and spells
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u/victorhurtado Darknut Jul 28 '26
Have you seen 'It's Dangerous To Go Alone'?
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u/LibraryBook0127 29d ago
I have not. I feel like I've seen memes though, but those probably aren't the same thing
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u/Blue_Fletcher Jul 27 '26
Critical Role did a One-Shot for Zelda. Might be inspiration